Things
have been changing by the day on the issue of terrorism investigation
since the proof of Sadhvi Prgya Singh Thakur’s involvement in
the Malegaon blast has come to the surface. So far the word Islamic
terrorism has been in the air in the post 9/11 phase when the US administration
ensured that media takes up this new word and propagates it. The social
common sense that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’ went to
such a pass that many a lawyers taking up the cases of terror suspects
were not only beaten up but also some of the Bar Associations passed
the resolutions, contrary to their own professional ethics, that they
will not take up the cases of the terror suspects. The basic adage
that one is innocent till proved guilty was turned upside down. The
legal aid to many of these suspects was meager if at all.

Matters
change with Sadhvi being arrested by the Maharashtra ATS. The RSS
associates, VHP, Shiv Sena rushed to put together the team of lawyers
to stand for the terror accused. The Shiv Sena is calling a bandh
in support of Pragya and Co. We are hearing strange arguments; Hindus
can’t be terrorists as it is not in their genes. This statement
also subtly hinted that terrorism is in the genes of ‘some’
other community. But lets be clear terrorism is not a genetic problem,
it is due to social, political and economic reasons.

It was
stated that Maharashtra Government is doing all this at the behest
of the Government, reducing all investigations to being merely politically
motivated one. Not that these things don’t happen but one has
also to see that in the prevailing situation where the social mind
set accepts the formulation that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’,
to suspect a non Muslim will require more than a mere grain of truth
to venture and touch any non Muslim and that too one with divine robe
adorning on one’s body or the one wearing the green fatigues
of army with its holy cow image. Logically no officer in the right
frame of mind can even dare think of such a move unless impeccable
evidence is there.

In pre-Sadhvi
period of terrorism RSS affiliates accused the Congress of being soft
on terrorism, in turn encouraging terrorism. They came up with the
formulation that they will provide a Government with Zero tolerance
for terrorism, meaning a total high handed ness in case of terror
accused. Now the matters stand turned upside down and no question
of zero tolerance for terror accused, special efforts are being made
to ensure that popular pressure is built up to save the likes of Sadhvi,
Acharya or Lt Col. Not only that, the issue is being communalized
and many right wing political parties are offering the accused the
tickets for the forthcoming elections. At the same time propaganda
is launched that the holy person like sadhvi is being targeted for
political reasons or that the noble institution of army is being sullied
by the Congress Government. Both these are baseless as the investigation
seems to be proceeding with extreme caution and the leads
provided by Sadhvi’s motor cycle, used in Malegaon blasts is
being pursued meticulously.

Sadhvi
Pragya Singh Thakur and the Lt Col. Prasad Purohit have alleged that
they were tortured in the police custody. A major morning newspaper
reports that the training camp conducted by Abhinav Bharat, instructed
the trainees that in order to deflect the investigation, all should
be done to implicate the investigation authorities themselves. So
one does not know whether they were tortured or they have been tutored
to say so. One waits with baited breath for the real truth to come
out. It goes without saying that torture of accused in police custody
is not a matter of surprise, it must be condemned and there is no
place for compromising with the human rights of accused, who so ever
one is. One will condemn the authorities if the torture of Sadhvi
and company has taken place.

So far
no one from RSS affiliates talked of human rights of accused. Now
this section is talking that the terror accused are being tortured
and that their human rights are being violated. One must ensure the
truth behind this. While police is capable of using its usual arms
twisting methods to extort confession, one will doubt if the police
can dare touch a saffron robed sadhvi or green uniformed Lt Col. Let
the inquiry decide, whether it is a genuine complaint or a ploy to
deflect the investigation.

One interesting
aside to the investigation of acts of terror is that so far during
last few years, the Muslim youth were caught hold of after every terror
attack, for a couple of days the media was abuzz with the same news
and then once they were produced in the court for the lack of evidence
many of them were quietly let off. This part was generally not in
the news. While a wrong person is accused, that person does suffer
all the humiliation etc, the additional point is that because of this
the real culprit merrily keeps planning the further things. And that
seems to be the case. As despite the leads provided by Nanded blasts,
where two Bajrang Dal workers were killed while making bomb. Despite
this the other acts of terror were not investigated on this line,
so one after the other the tragedy kept happening. Hopefully with
this the further blasts will be arrested in the tracks.

Overall
the logic of the events as unfolding makes it clear that the RSS affiliates
have been caught with their pants down. How so ever much they deny
the ideological and organizational difference, it seems that there
is lot of proof to point the finger towards the Abhinav Bharat and
ex workers of ABVP as a part of the plot of Malegaon blasts, Ajmer
blasts and Samjhauta express blasts. The proximity of the accused
to many a top brass of the organizations is being reported day in
and day out.

To deflect
from the issue a campaign has been started to defame the ATS, the
Mahrashtra Government and even Sonia Gandhi. Rumors are being spread
that these are the one’s who are framing and torturing the accused.
One is amazed at the double standards of those saying this. Till yesterday
when the police was blindly apprehending the Muslim youth for all
these crimes, especially police was being cheered for the investigation.
In the aftermath of Ahmedabad blasts and the series of bombs found
in Surat, hanging on trees and all that, Modi took the credit for
showing the way to deal with terrorism. Now with his own ideological
associates accused in the acts of terror, another type of offensive
has been launched to wriggle out of the situation. One hopes that
truth alone will prevail and guilty, irrespective of their religion,
holiness, and military uniform are given punishment for the suffering
they have inflicted on the nation.